Mike Jenkins was kind enough to send over this recreation of the Silver Key from Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories.
Because of it's "cryptical Arabesques", and HPL's Arabian Nights leanings, I decided the key should have an Arabic look to it. A little Google Image Searching led me to the keys to the Kaaba (the big black cube at the heart of Mecca), which are very cool looking and covered with Arabic. Go look 'em up. This is a crude, cheap, clumsy replica of a Kaaba key, made by stringing silver colored beads along a thick wire. In person, it is very flimsy and crooked, but with a little careful staging...
3 comments:
This inspires me... The question is wouldn't a key to dreams be fragile?
What an excellent prop and a good inspiration. I have always had a hobby in keys and locks (among many others). So your take on the Dreamlands key is just brilliant. Don’t worry about the fragility of your prop, it presents beautifully.
Keep in mind that the Kaaba is also pre-Islamic and the Keeper of the Key was again a pre-Islamic position as well, so the antiquity of the position goes quite far back (no disrespect intended, just history). Keys in the modern sense are pretty much Roman, although the history of keys and locks go much farther back, the shapes become quite alien to modern people. The Chinese and Japanese also have some excellent locks and keys. For interesting links on some interesting keys and lock shapes, try: http://romanlocks.com/Keys.htm , http://www.finds.calverley.info/rom_lock.htm ,
http://www.historicallocks.com/en/site/hl/Other-locks/19-Keys-and-locks-from-Imperial-Rome/Roman-door-locks/ , Chinese locks http://www.iacr.org/archive/asiacrypt2003/08_invited_talk/28940325.pdf , other locks and keys http://www.ferndaleblacksmith.com/locks/ , antique locks and keys forum http://www.antique-locks.com/forum.php?s=6a327ab477602e3ee85cea28fafa5c1d
You key is in good company, at a 2008 auction had a key to the Kabaa from the 12th century sell for 18 million dollars.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/04/10/us-finearts-auction-islamic-record-idUSL1075655620080410
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